I do not own TVD or TO.

I meant to update this one yesterday but then I got really inspired for my Saving Hope crossover.

She tossed her hair over her shoulder and leaned in the frame of the door. The rich smell of simmering garlic had drawn her from the library where she had been wondering how many of the leather bound volumes her host had actually read.

She hadn't actually been hungry for human food in weeks. The desire to curb her supernatural cravings had not been overly high and so she had avoided it. It wasn't like she needed to consume anything but blood.

She bit her cheek and tilted her head while scrutinizing him. She had ultimately decided to stay because she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her brother would keep trying, and he would probably have succeeded, to make her flip the switch. He would never resort to torture but he would try. She was in no hurry to experience the grief that had been her life. Snatch, eat, erase was annoying but it meant she could stay with Kol and not have to worry about any of her 'friends' trying to manipulate her; he had already taken care of the Salvatores.

She had never pegged him for a chief. If her nose was anything to go by then he was a pretty decent cook.

Kol chopped some onions and added them to the pan. He had felt her eyes on him since she'd emerged and taken up a post by the door, but he hadn't said anything.

He had been relieved when she decided to stay. Watching her was certainly easier this way. He still didn't understand why he cared so much about the devastation she would feel on turning it on if she were to harm someone. He just knew he wanted to save her that pain. He was starting to feel every life he had taken clawing at his back and his compassion was nowhere near the level of hers.

He knew he would protect her.

He would protect her from everyone and everything including herself.

Elena shifted silently and slithered into the kitchen like a slow trickle of water over a bed of rocks.

She knew she had taken him by surprise when he turned around and looked from her to the door. She could see it in his eyes; he was impressed.

She tilted her head and watched him. Her eyes never left his and for a few seconds they were locked in a staring contest. Electricity sizzled in the air between them in time with the onions in the pan.

She didn't know what to make of this ancient vampire. Before flipping the switch she had cared enough about his life to avoid him at all costs because she hadn't wanted to kill him.

Curiosity, she told herself, was not an emotion but a state of mind. She was curious about him. She was Pandora and he was the box.

She wondered how hard it would be to pry off the lid and release all of his evil and madness on the world. Was there anything left inside? Had he already let it all out?

What would she find under the layers of madness and rumor that the centuries had piled on his shoulders? Was he really as mad as Klaus?

Her eyes dropped to the stove. "You can cook."

Kol cleared his throat and returned to his task. "I can."

"And you love music."

He had thought she would have forgotten that fact and the knowledge that she remembered lifted his lips in a smirk.

"I do."

Elena tipped her chin up and met his eyes.

"Gay?"

"No," he chuckled, "but I have been with my share of men over the centuries. Just as you've had your share of women."

"Woman," she corrected, "just the one. Damon and Stefan took me before I could be with another."

Kol turned around and pulled some plates from the cabinet.

"Eternity is a long time darling," he began plating the food, "there will be another."

Elena clicked her tongue.

"Maybe."

"Maybe," Kol chuckled. He passed her a plate and moved to sit at the table.

Elena eyed the food warily. The rich smells rose to her nose making her mouth water and her stomach grumble. Damon and Stefan had given her tainted food to weaken her; would Kol do the same?

She decided it was unlikely. She had watched him cooking and he didn't seem the type to poison himself. He had already taken a few bites when she came to sit in front of him.

"Why are you doing this?"

He looked from her to his plate and the fork midway to his mouth.

"I was hungry?"

Elena rolled her eyes.

"Not the food Kol. Why are you helping me? Why didn't you just compel me?" She tilted her head and played with her fork. "It would have been a lot easier."

She heard him inhale deeply before reaching for his water with a sigh. She began to think he wasn't going to answer when his mouth opened.

"Losing your free will is what prompted you to turn it off in the first place," he tipped his chin up and met her curious gaze. "I didn't want you to hate me."

She might have missed his confession if not for her enhanced hearing. Her eyes narrowed as her head tilted.

"Why would you care if I hate you?"

"Hate is a negative emotion and that shouldn't be the first one you experience. You'll turn it on when you're ready."

"How can you be sure of that? What could you possibly know about that?"

"I've been where you are darling. I know the allure of darkness."

His eyes flashed with memories of years gone by and countless lives taken. A blur of death and destruction before a lithe body pinned beneath him on a kitchen floor and the flash of defeat in mahogany eyes.

"I also know one day something is going to happen to you and you won't be able to stop yourself from feeling."

Elena ran her tongue along her teeth and crossed her arms on the table.

"You've been where I am?"

Kol smirked but the expression didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Eat your veggies love. If you're still curious I'll take you out tonight and show you."

"Under a full moon?" She cocked an eyebrow. "That sounds safe."

"Nobody will harm you while you're with me, darling."

The thought brought a flood of warmth to her chest.

He glanced up from where he was reading one of the many novels he had missed out on in the last hundred years. There was a pretty brunette leaning in his door. She'd developed quite the habit of watching him from the door.

"I thought you would let it go," he marked his page.

The pale moonlight filtered through his window and brightened the silver buttons on her jacket.

He walked across the room until his shadow blocked the light.

"Why would you think that?" She straightened her spine to meet his eyes.

He tilted his head. The curiosity was there in her mahogany eyes. Not for the first time he wondered just how deep her emotions were truly buried.

"Because you don't care about anything." He saw her eyes flash.

The denial was quick. It rested on the tip of her tongue as if she had been expecting to say it.

"I don't care."

"Then why are you here?" He reached for his jacket.

"I'm…" her mouth hung open for a split second. Humans wouldn't have caught the hesitation but Kol heard the minor shift in her voice. "I'm curious."

"Curious, huh?" He cocked an eyebrow and chuckled. "Alright," he gently took her elbow and steered her into the hall. "Come along, Pandora."

Her fingers tapped out the rhythm of the bass as they drove through the woods. She could see the flickering orange light from a bonfire and heard the distant voices of her classmates under the music coming through his speakers.

They were partying. It seemed like every full moon the teens of Mystic Falls would take to the woods for a wild party.

Two years ago would have found her in the midst of everything. If it was warm she might have been wearing her cheerleading uniform and Matt's letterman jacket. She could still remember him grabbing a couple of red solo cups and sneaking away to the water. She had drunk only a few sips of her beer when he'd kissed her. It had been her first kiss and she remembered thinking, at the time, that it couldn't have been more perfect.

"I had my first kiss by the falls." She wasn't sure why she told him.

"That's funny," Kol turned off the car, "so did I; a thousand years gone now." He stepped out and started towards the water. "It was right here. Her name was Alice."

Elena cocked her head and crossed her arms. It was chilly near the water.

"Did you bring me out here to reminisce?"

"No," he toed off his shoes and removed his jacket. "I brought you out here to show you something."

"I've heard that line before," she looked him over slowly.

"Maybe later," he smirked.

"… You're joking."

"You'll have to find out," he chuckled before backing into the water.

Elena watched him for a moment. She could already feel the cold snaking around her ankles and dripping down her spine, but ultimately curiosity won out. She pulled off her boots, tore her jacket down her arms and followed him. A tiny voice whispered in the back of her mind: 'you'd follow him anywhere'.

Kol came to a stop beneath the roaring fall for which the town had been named. He smiled and nodded to the water.

"We're going through."

"Into a solid stone wall?" Elena scoffed. The water twisted around her knees.

"There's a cave on the other side."

She vividly remembered Elijah stomping a hole in the earth and depositing her in another hidden cave.

"Let me guess," she heaved a sigh, "it's full of runic writing."

"Something like that."

She stared at the solid wall of water. He had disappeared through it in a rush of wind. 'Anywhere' echoed in her mind; it was still sounding when the water saturated her clothes and ran down her nose. Not even a vampire could move fast enough to stay dry in the torrential rush.

She wiped the moisture from her face and pushed back her hair. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom quickly and located Kol a few feet away. He was kneeling on the ground and moving a few heavy rocks out of the way.

She stepped forward when he turned to her with an old box in his hands.

"I open the box and unleash famine, war, and strife."

"Hilarious," he rolled his eyes.

"Hey you're the one who called me Pandora." She pointed to him as he lifted the lid and pulled out a length of tied together leather. "A book?"

"A grimoire," he untied the cord and flipped open the pages.

In the gloom she could just make out spirals and runes. She had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"Whose?"

"Mine," Kol ran his fingers over the pages. They were perfectly preserved.

"Mother turned us into vampires. I took it harder than my siblings."

Elena watched a drop of water run down his temple and caught the distant look in his eyes. A tugging sensation started in her chest.

"I had lost my brother, my own life and my connection to nature. In my grief I was to burn this."

He closed the book. The soft leather was at once familiar and foreign in his hands.

The tugging shifted into a tightening.

"Why didn't you?"

Kol shook his head and released a humourless laugh.

"Rebekah… she stopped me." As he spoke he turned the book over in his hands. "She told me one day I might want it again and asked Ayana to place it in a spelled box to preserve the pages. I flipped the switch days after my transition Elena." He pushed his wet hair from his brow. "I kept it off for nine hundred years."

"What changed?"

Elena saw the loss in his eyes and the ghosts of grief and remorse. The tightness in her chest turned to a heavy feeling over her heart. She wanted to turn around and run but something kept her feet glued to the floor. She couldn't look away from his dark eyes.

"Nik," he breathed after a moment of deafening quiet where all she could hear was his beating heart. "He daggered me one too many times and I got angry. He stole centuries of my life Elena and I channeled all of my rage into waging a war on him. I did terrible things because anger came first. I know you'll regret it if the same happens to you."

"Why do you care?" Her fingers twitched at her sides.

"I care," he took a step toward her. He could feel the goosebumps rising on her flesh. "What are you so afraid of feeling?"

He stared down into her blank eyes and saw something flicker. Her heart skipped a beat before picking up again. As soon as it came the flicker was gone.

He watched her pivot on her heel and vanished through the falls. He let her go while questioning himself. In a thousand years he had never cared for another soul. He had thought his compassion died with his magic, but he hadn't been able to say no when Jeremy asked for his help.

He hadn't been able to kill her.

He felt an unprecedented need to protect her.

He had wanted to tear the Salvatores apart for what they had done to her, but he hadn't been able to. And why not; because they were her friends once and with her forgiving nature would be again.

Caring for her and her emotions apparently meant sparing her friends. He hadn't been able to hurt Jeremy in Denver; he had spared Damon when they began the search for 'Bloody' Mary. Thinking back on his time since waking and first locking eyes on the young doppelganger he couldn't remember killing anyone.

What do you guys think?

I would love to get some reviews so I can hear your lovely thoughts.